The Hart of L.A.

Talia woke up with a start, only to find herself alone in the bed. She threw the covers off of herself, and saw she was in her own apartment. She could have sworn that Xander had taken her back to his place that evening, but it would appear to be otherwise. She walked into the kitchen and found Xander face down on the floor. She ran up to him, and turned him over. She could tell right away that something was wrong. His eye was open, but he wasn’t breathing. She tried in vain to give him CPR, but to no avail. She couldn’t help the sobbing that overtook her. She started to hit his chest, but not too hard. When it still didn’t make a difference, Talia cupped her hands to lift his head. She stopped crying for a minute, only to let out a heart piercing scream. She started to grab the phone to call the paramedics, when she heard something release a guttural growl. Talia swung around and came face to face with a Jackoral Demon. The only reason she knew what it was, because she heard Wesley and Giles talking about it. These things were supposed to be very fierce, but not too bright. She charged at the Demon, but he easily knocked her away from him. She tried to fight him, but the Demon seemed excessively strong, and not like what Wesley had talked about. She took a swing at the Demon, only to have the Demon duck, and grab her by the neck. She was hopelessly struggling against the Demon, when he suddenly snapped her neck, and left her lying lifelessly on top of Xander.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Faith wasn’t sleeping at all, she was up exercising in her work-out room. She was working off some stress, but she’d never admit to anyone. The fact that they didn’t know what the hell they were fighting, didn’t ease any of her tension. She wanted to know what it was, so she could kick it’s ass. She’d been so restless lately, that she wasn’t sleeping, which left her up working out, which left with no energy to train with Buffy and Talia. She was kind of antsy, because Wood had left a message on her machine. She hadn’t heard from him since she’d hit L.A. She’d really cared for him, but he wouldn’t stay for her. She really had no choice but to stay, because Buffy had personally asked her to stay. She’d left the decision up to her, but she felt she owed it Buffy to stay. She was doing rounds on the punching bag, when she heard a glass break in her kitchen. She jerked around, and ran into the kitchen ready for battle, but she bumped into a nasty looking Demon. The impact caused her to tumble backwards onto the ground. She quickly got back up and jump kicked the Demon, which made it crash into her refrigerator. The Demon stood up, and back handed her. Faith couldn’t gain her balance again before the Demon grabbed her off her feet. Before Faith could do anything, the Demon grabbed a knife out of cutlery drawer, and drug it across her throat. Without even flinching, the Demon threw faith on her Couch and left her to die.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Buffy and Angel were in his apartment on the couch. Buffy was currently straddling Angel with their lips fused together. They’d been doing this for about an hour so far, and they were still going on strong. It took them a few minutes to notice that they weren’t alone. They were getting ready to go into the bed room, when Angel froze. Buffy smiled at him, and turned to see what he was looking at. When she turned around she sighed, this always happened whenever something good was about to happen to her.

" Okay, do you not know the words, ‘knock before entering?’" The Demon just snarled in response. Angel looked at Buffy.

" Let’s do this, okay? We can take him."

With that said Angel charged the Demon. He kept the Demon going for awhile, then he knocked Angel aside to charge at Buffy. She easily dodged the Demon, and kicked him in the back. Angel and Buffy kept the Demon going for about a half hour, before Buffy plopped down on the couch.

"Geeze this guy is tough." The Demon turned around and faced both of them. He charged Buffy once more, but Angel got in front of her. The Demon grabbed Angel by the neck and threw him on one of the broken chairs in the room. He looked down and saw the piece of wood sticking out of his chest, and had enough time to say "Buffy?" Buffy jerked her head around, and saw Angel burst into a cloud of dust. Buffy screamed when she saw him go. She turned herself back towards the Demon and charged. The Demon was surprised by her quick return, which allowed Buffy to knock it down. She grabbed one of the knives on the floor and stuck in the Demons head. The Demon puttered around for few minutes, but then fell to the ground dead.

Meanwhile, Buffy went over to the spot where Angel had been killed. She laid down on the spot, and let the sobs overtake her body.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------