Slayers: Academy Years

“I hate this…” She looked over at Dianna and raised a brow, trying to settle more comfortably into her seat and keep an eye out for potential trouble. She didn’t like it any more than her friend, but this wasn’t the place to go talking about it. The spell cloaking their presence as slayers wasn’t likely to last past being attacked, and there was more than one demon variety that had far too keen of ears for them to keep talking. Her slayer senses were going crazy in this place, and she squinted over at a table where a familiar figure sat. “Why can’t we just ambush her when she gets here?”

“Shh…” she whispered, extending her senses to see if anyone had heard. They were lucky, this time. Wasn’t that a well known vampire? A couple decades old, she thought… responsible for a few ritual summonings that the squads had to deal with. And she could have sworn that she’d heard a rumor that this one was responsible for the death of Slayer Jannyn. What was someone like that doing sitting in a demon bar… alone? For that matter, what was someone like Brennon Talon doing coming to a demon bar? She’d always thought that it was below demons of their stature.

Next to her Dianna fidgeted again, but there seemed to be more purpose behind it. Turning her head slightly, she saw a figure walk in, and the demons near that entrance go dead-silent. Next to her was a man in torn jeans and a hoodie, another thing that didn’t fit. What was a powerful mage like him, in such a high and profitable position, doing wearing rags like those? She’d seen better on fledgeling vampires. The young woman was obviously Brennon Talon, though the images had always been fuzzy, Liz had made it her place to study them. It was really the Brennon Talon. Her breath caught, and she stared, unable to help herself.

“It’s… it’s her.” She whispered, staring still, Diana was watching as well, but not quite staring despite her own amazement. “She’s… she’s…” beautiful… “she’s real.”

“Yeah. I know, creepy innit?” Diana’s voice held a hiss, and she broke her gaze to look at her friend. Dianna was glaring at the table now, doing her best to look like she wasn’t watching Talon, but her gaze kept flickering in that direction. Respectful silence followed the half-demon boss, so their reaction wasn’t the only one to include staring and whispers. Surprise of all surprises, Talon strode directly over to the table that vampire was sitting at, and took a seat. Her brother, the mage, disappeared somewhere near the bar, and she suspected that he was only along as insurance.

Belatedly, Liz rubbed the stone on a strange ring she wore. Their cover was that of witches, powerful ones and addicted to magic, and waiting for their most recent employer. Her activating a spell wouldn’t seem out of place. It would likely be expected. No one even seemed to glance in her direction as she triggered the spell that enhanced her hearing enough to listen in on the villain’s conversation.

~

“Hey. Sorry I’m late. Ran into… um… some unfinished business.” Brennon smiled slightly as she pushed her jacket back onto the chair and scooted closer to the table, signaling one of the employees over. This wasn’t typically a place where you ordered from a waitress or waiter, but for her they made an exception. She’d made sure of that before coming. The vampire didn’t seem to be angry, and only nodded with a fang-flashing smile.

“It is not an issue.” Her accent betrayed something near French, maybe. Brennon couldn’t immediately place it, and didn’t particularly care to. At least the vampire was beautiful. “I was early.”

“So, um… do you want anything to drink?” She glanced up at the waiter that she’d signaled over, who hastily smoothed some wrinkles from his clothes. “Blood-wine?”

“I prefer from the source.” The toothy grin came again, and she glanced at the waiter. “Vodka.”

“Um… wine… please.” Brennon smiled tentatively again, ignoring the waiter as he walked away. “So… um… what brings you back to this town? Not exactly the safest of places.”

“Business.” The woman shrugged, staring her unwaveringly in the eye. “I was hired to remove a former employer. He has met the sun.”

“Oh… um…” Brennon glanced around and smiled as the waiter returned with their drinks. She took a heafty swallow of her wine, then looked at the vampire. “So what do you do when you aren’t working?”

“I…” Here there was dramatic pause, and then an abrupt movement that might have meant to be, in some way, elegant. “like to dance.” Brennon pretended to look interested, already annoyed. Getting her to talk was like pulling teeth. “It is what I studied in school, before I was turned.”

“Really.” She smiled a bit more genuinely, wondering what the woman was like when she’d still been human. “What kind of dance?”

~

“The vamp’s in town to off an old employer. Now… they’re talking about dancing?” Liz glanced in confusion at Dianna, then turned again to watch the vampire and half-demon.

“Must be some kind of code. Take it to memory.” Diana suggested, looking around discreetly for where the mage was. They didn’t get much more of a chance for quiet stake-out, though, as someone approached from behind them. Demons all over the bar were growling for some reason, and Diana looked up to realize that that very reason was standing directly behind Liz. A big, beefy, muscle-bound human. His arms and neck were covered in faint, but real scars, and on his neck being that of a vampire-bite. What the hell was he doing here?

“Liz…” she turned and stared at the young man, his shirt still spotted with some of the blood from his bite. He looked, at the moment, like one of those pathetic junkies from a vampire brothel, where humans went to be fed on, and vampires went to feed but not kill. Supposedly it was addicting. She knew better.

“Brian?” She hissed, glaring at him. What the hell was he doing here? He was supposed to still be on a mission in Guam. “Isn’t this place a bit advanced for you?”

“Got bored at the brothel,” he offered, eyes flickering only briefly in the direction of Brennon Talon and her silent conversation. In his ear was only the tiniest hint of an aid, probably also listening in on the two as well. “I wanna talk. You can’t just dump me over the phone and expect me to…”

“Now isn’t the time, Brian.” She growled, ducking her head and looking around to see just how many demons where staring at them. Most had looked away, scenting the blood and bite on him, and seeing him talk to the witch as if he’d come here to confront her. There weren’t to be any fights with each other, and especially no human killings, in the bar, on order of its owner, lest it be brought too much to the attention of the numerous local Slayers. “Can’t you just accept we’re not together and get over it?”

“You broke up with my fucking machine.” His eyes flared red, figuratively speaking, and he glared down at her. In his current persona, he was completely capable of such manners and talk, or he might have been more polite… maybe. “My machine.”

“Yeah, well, you weren’t home, like usual.” She growled back, trying to listen to the conversation more closely. She was barely catching every other word, which meant that it was going to be over twice as difficult to crack the damned code. Simply because she didn’t want her own cover blown by his being tossed, she glared at his bite mark. “I see you were out again…”

Catching the hint and realizing that they were still supposed to be pretending to be other people, he took the liberty of responding, instead of stalking off. “Yeah, well, we’ve all got our habits and obsessions, don’t we?” Maybe he really meant part of that, it almost sounded like he did, but she turned away instead of deigning to answer. Grabbing her shoulder, he glared again. “Gimme back the bracelet. It was my mom’s.”

“Fine, will you leave me alone then? I’m supposed to be meeting someone.” She glowered at him, straining to listen to the conversation. Were they talking about ballet? He nodded curtly, indicating that he would leave, and as she struggled to concentrate on the conversation as well as getting the trick catch on the bracelet, he abruptly bent forward to help get it off. It was a mistake, of course. Some of the wires must have gotten crossed, cause as he moved too quickly to help, or came too close to the spells set on her, the aid in his ear screeched in protest softly. That, of course, was torture to her own enhanced ears, and warning to some of the more sensitive demons. Several jumped up, startled at the sound of an unfamiliar machine’s whine, knowing that no one in here would have such a thing. He winced and shook his head, the thing falling out and screeching again, and an alert was yelled.

“Initiative!” one called out, sounding somewhere between panicked and angry, as a good half of the bar jumped up as well and looked around. That seemed to be the cue for the front door to burst open with his team as well.

“Fuck…” he growled, pressing a hand to his aching ear, and signaling the team in. The smarter demons scattered, finding other exits to hastily run through, and a few stupid ones chose that moment to attack the soldier-boys. A few demons started in their direction, including a vampire, and Diana jumped up as well, pulling out a stake.

“SLAYERS!” That startled the rest of the demons in the bar to bolting, or attacking as well. Kelleigh and Mary came scuttling out of their own hiding place to help, and Liz looked around in a panic to figure out what had happened to Brennon and the vampire. This was not going well. She barely saw the vampire ducking out of one exit, and a strange magical warping distort the doorway of another.

“Shit, she’s getting away!” Liz called out to Dianna.

“Let the soldier boys handle things here, it’s his damned fault that we were compromised.” Dianna said, edging her way toward Liz with the other two girls, easily tossing aside most of the foolhardy demons that tried at them. “Mary, Liz, you try to follow them. Kelleigh and I will try to head them off.”

“But our Watcher said not to fight her!” Mary complained already trying to catch up to them as they rushed toward the exits. Dianna skidded to a brief stop, staring at the girl incredulously.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” She grabbed Mary’s shirt, and tugged her closer, snarling in her face. “You’re a fucking Slayer. Act like one! I’m team-leader, I said follow her. You wanna go back and say we didn’t even find out where she’s holing up?”

“Mary, come-on, it’s just observational.” Liz called, grabbing her arm and pulling her along with her. Dianna rolled her eyes, cursed a few more times, and dashed off in a different direction with Kelleigh.

It took a few hard kicks and pounding, with full Slayer-strength, to get the door to open, and when they did, they found themselves in an alley, with two ways to go. “Which way do we….”

“You take that way, I’ll go there.” Liz offered, turning to run off again, only to have a panicked Mary grab her. “C’mon girl, you can do this. You’re a Slayer. Just take a deep breath, and go. All you have to do is follow her.”

“I…”

“You can do it Mary.” The girl took a deep breath, too deep of one to help, and nodded once, then trotted off in the direction she was supposed to go. Liz shook her head and sighed, turning the other way and running. There was another fork ahead, and it only took her debating one moment to turn one way and try that. Dead end. Cursing, she turned to try the other way, hoping that luck would finally catch up with her tonight, only to run head-on into someone else. Probably Mary. “Shit. God, I am so sorry. Are you okay.” She stood, shaking stars from her vision and turned to try and help up the other person. Both were standing, and as they locked eyes, her realizing that the other person was begrudgingly apologizing as well, she realized just who she’d run into. “Fuck…”

“Shit…” Brennon Talon leapt back, eyes wide, and unsheathing her claws, as Liz whipped out a stake. It was the only weapon she had on her.

“You’re… You’re Brennon Talon.” She stammered out, stiffly staying in fighting stance and keeping her eyes on the half-demon.

“Slayer…”

“You…” she gulped, staring. “Just… um… surrender and… and the Watchers can figure out what to do with you…”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Brennon sounded half-amused, half shocked. She couldn’t believe this Slayer was actually trying to get her to turn herself in.

They stared at each other for several more long seconds, Brennon twitching slightly as she tried to ready herself for a Slayer. How well trained was this one? She looked nervous… maybe it was a front?

“Listen… um… I don’t wanna die…” She finally said, shocking the half-demon. “I… so why don’t you just… calm down… and I’ll put the stake down…”

“Why don’t you put the stake down first…” Brennon said, confused, and looking her over briefly. What was this, some kind of game?

“Well I’m the good guy… I figure that I’m probably a bit more trustworthy of the two of us.” She said with a nervous smile, her stake wavering only slightly as her eyes flickered from the claws, to Brennon’s face, and then back.

“Yeah, except that I was only out on some stupid blind date when you asses decided to jump me.” She snapped back.

Liz blinked a few times, her posture getting just a little less tense, and she smiled slightly. Lowering the stake just a little, she gestured with it. “Wait a minute… you were on a date?”

“Yeah…”

“With that vampire chick?”

Brennon glowered and watched as the stake turned into more of a gesturing tool than a weapon for the Slayer. “What’s it to you?”

“I… I just didn’t know you were like that.” Liz looked like she was about to laugh.

Brennon’s scowl only deepened, and she looked kind of offended. “Why would you know?”

“I’m doing my final project in fifth year Research on you…” Liz blushed slightly, and smiled. “Um… you’re the prize subject.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Brennon relaxed slightly and looked Liz over curiously.

“No, really. All of the girls want to do their project on you. You’re the most challenging. No one really knows anything about you. No Slayer or Wicca has ever really stopped to talk to you before.” She smiled and blushed, gesturing again. “Um… until now. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Right, until now…” Brennon smiled just slightly, sheathing the claws of her right hand and standing straight again. “No. Um… I guess I didn’t really introduce myself. Brennon. Brennon Talon.”

“Right! Oh, sorry. Elizabeth Summers.” Liz quickly switched her stake to her other hand and shook hand offered to her, smiling back in a polite manner. “Liz really. It’s really nice to meet you.”

“Yeah… you too.” Brennon smiled a bit more, and the flash of fangs seemed to catch Liz’s attention again.

“Oh, right… well you’re still, you know… under arrest I guess you could say. I still have to bring you back to the watchers, I mean, or something.” She switched her stake back again, and shrugged, seeming more at ease now.

“Do you really.” Brennon smirked again, re-sheathing the rest of her claws and giving the girl another once over. They heard shouting in the distance. It was Mary, calling out to Liz, and claiming that there hadn’t been anyone that way. “You know… you could just let me go….”

“I really couldn’t.” Liz smiled slightly, shrugging once more. “You’re nice and all, but you’re still a demon.”

“Not all demons are evil.” Brennon pouted, and Liz was distracted by another yell from Mary. The girl didn’t know which way to go.

“I’m down this way!” Liz yelled, turning slightly. When she looked back, Brennon was gone… “Fuck.”

Dianna and Kelleigh were both with Mary, and Liz let out a frustrated breath, looking around for where Brennon could have gone. “Oh my god, are you okay? What happened? I was yelling for like, five minutes.”

Liz looked skeptically at Mary, knowing it could have been that long at all. Rolling her eyes, she smiled a bit, excited. “She was here. Brennon Talon. Here. I was face to face with her.”

“Buggar that. If you’d met her, one of you would be dead.” Kelleigh said, rolling her eyes and taking out a clove. “Probably you.”

“No really, she was…” Liz began, only to be cut off by Mary’s gasp.

“You guys…” Mary stretched from where she stood on a dumpster, grabbing a jacket that hung casually on a pipe coming out of the brick wall closing off this alley from the one on the other side. It was the very jacket that Brennon had been wearing.

“Shit… do you realize what this means?” Dianna asked, staring at the jacket, then her friend. Liz looked confused.

“You fought the Talon… and lived.”


TBC