FIC: Finding the Slayer (7c/?) B/W PG

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By her estimation it was about three when she saw the distant lightening. An hour later she could see the tall clouds during the flashes. The storm was to their northwest so there was a chance that it could sweep through before daybreak ?just a chance though. Most of the storms she had seen on the plains went straight west.

A little while later the wind shifted ?and with it something changed. At first there was a faint odor of musk ?she didn?t know from what, animal, human, or demon. It was almost human, yet not. Over the years hunting she had learned the different scents of some of the demons but she did not recognize this scent. The outflow of the storm increased causing the grass to bend and sway with each gust, and the smell became stronger.

Her every sense sharpened, every muscle tensed, as she waited. Her enhanced hearing could not detect a single out of place sound above the noise of the distant storm. Her extra sense felt that something was out there but it could not determine its location. She risked a glance back to her sleeping Watcher, if the beast, whatever it was, saw him then he would be helpless against its attack. She measured the distance in her head ?she was five paces from him. Under normal conditions she would think that close enough, yet somehow tonight wasn?t normal at all. As the distant boom of thunder rocked the earth she hoped it would wake him.

It didn?t.

She felt trapped as another boom shook the earth. The fury of the storms in this harsh place was another difference from back east. Each clap of thunder caused a small earthquake. Each flash of lightening was blinding.

How could he sleep through the storm that was only a few miles away ?a storm that was lighting up the sky and shaking the earth but it seemed would miss them since it was already to the east.

A few moments later the wind died down, the noise of thunder gone. The wind shifted yet again ?and the odor was nearly overwhelming. She wanted to call out to Arthur, she wanted to dash to the horses and escape ?what she did was obey her training and lay still in the thick grass.

She saw the first one slowly come out of the grass on his hands and knees by the horses. He had the face of an animal, claws on his hands, canines in his mouth, and covered in fur. He was small, about the size of a child. Something told her to stay still, that he wasn?t what sent her extra sense crazy. The next one came out of the grass beside Arthur. This one walked upright like a man, yet he had the face of a wolf. She could tell that he had seen the sword and was being cautious, still, like the smaller one before him. He picked up Arthur's sword and just stood there. The small one had blocked Arthur?s escape route to the horses, this one had his sword, the fact that neither attacked meant there were more. And as she thought that a third came out of the grass, a female, like the small one, she was on all fours too. She paced from the horses to Arthur and back again, causing the horses to nicker and shuffle their feet.

The Slayer thought about calling out a warning to her Watcher but didn?t. The claws on the beasts could rip his throat out before he could turn over. And it would give away her position to an unknown force. She knew the worse of the beasts hadn?t yet made an appearance. She knew it was still out there in the night, lying in the grass as she was, waiting ? waiting for her to move. She also knew that soon the female beast?s discipline would break down; that she would go after either the horses or Arthur and at that time the Slayer would have to stop her. Every muscle in the Slayer's body was taut, ready for the leap that she knew was coming.

It happened faster than the Slayer imagined possible ?the female let out a long low howl and then dashed at Arthur. The Slayer reacted without realizing it. The female beast?s head rolled down the hill, while the other two beasts stood in stunned silence. The Slayer took advantage of the tall beast?s shock as he too was decapitated just a moment later.

Then all Hell broke lose as Arthur sprung to his feet, grabbing his sword, in one fluid motion eviscerating a large beast leaping at her back.

"What took you so long?" he asked. Arthur put his back to his Slayer as their campsite was filled with the things. The monsters didn't attack them; they stood waiting. The Slayer and Watcher were surrounded. "I didn?t think I could pretend to be asleep a moment more! I have three how many do you have?"

She looked around at the four in front of her. And still the leader hadn?t made an appearance. "I have four," she belatedly answered, "the leader hasn?t shown."

"Ah, yes, so that is why they have not attacked. The mangy mongrels are waiting for their pack leader." Werewolves, she should have known. At his words the four in front of her started a low growl.

"Well, apparently they don?t like to be called mangy," she quipped back to him, tensing as one of the beasts lunged at her, only to stop short of her swords' reach.

"Yes, well, it seems we have a standoff and with dawn only a few minutes away ?" Arthur started and the Slayer was surprised to see the pink of the pre-dawn glowing in the east.

"Sorry traveler," a deep baritone said and a huge beast stood up, not three feet from where the Slayer?s hiding place was. "The sunrise holds no sway over us. Nor does the power of the moon." The beast was the size of a bear, he walked upright down the hill, he had claws and fur like the other ones, only his face was different. "If you surrender your weapons then I promise your deaths will be swift," he paused but a moment, "or I will make you watch as I bite your female and take her as an animal does."

The great beast walked out of her sight to stand in front of Arthur. She hated not knowing where he was, but there was no helping it.

The beast continued talking. "Since you know something of us, then you know that once I bite your woman she will change tonight. And you will be the first blood she takes ?once a wolf tastes human blood they are condemned to Hell. For no other blood tastes as fine."

The Great Beast came back into her sight, standing behind the four wolves in front of her. She could feel Arthur leaning slightly against her back. The Slayer knew the signal, at his first move she was to attack. He could do no better than to defend himself so it was up to her to save them.

"What kind of honor can I expect from a demon dog?" Arthur asked with a slight wobble in his voice. The Slayer could that he was feigning fright.

"My vow as the leader of Kroger Clan," the great beast said solemnly. "Your woman is quite comely; I like the fire that blazes within her eyes." Then the Beast smiled hideously at her. "She has already killed two of my pack with her swords. I do not want to lose more, but I would so love to tame that fire. To tame it, to control it, to mold her into one of us until that light, that I know you so love, dies."

And the Slayer knew that he was lying not about the rape, but about giving them a merciful death. Not that it mattered, she would make sure that he died, or they both died before she would let the Beast have her.

"Then, if you give me your vow ?."She heard the fear in Arthur?s voice. Even though she knew he was acting, it still sounded so real.

"I give you my vow, you will die quickly and I will give the woman a merciful death," the Great Beast smirked.

"Then I surrender," Arthur stated. "Lower your swords Belle," he ordered and as two of the wolves started forward to collect their swords Arthur pulled away from Belle?s back, signaling her to attack and giving her the space and freedom in which to fight.

Belle, having lowered her swords at Arthur?s false command, brought the Katana up and through the wolf in front of her, spilling his guts on the ground. Before the first one had fallen, she had whipped her long saber blindly behind her, feeling it cut through muscle and bone. She heard two distinctive thuds as another werewolf was killed. Four of the five remaining minions circled her cautiously, giving enough time to glance at Arthur. He was holding one of the minions at bay with his sword while he backed up to the dancing horses. The hobbles were holding for the moment.

If he could get to the horses, get at least one bridled, then they still might have a chance to escape this fight. They were less than a day from Rock Creek Station, if they could get there, then they could come back with guns and bullets of silver. It didn?t take a genius to know that this pack was responsible for the missing caravans and settlers.

She looked at the circling beasts and then up at the pack leader as he stood outside of the fight. She wondered why he didn?t attack with the group.

Taking advantage of her distraction the wolf behind her dashed in and was able to rake her back with his claws leaving a fiery trail down her back and causing nausea to rise up in her throat. Instinctively she swung around, whipping her swords before her, the Katana high, the saber low. The beast was able to get his arm up to block her killing blow to his neck, only he lost his arm in the process and as the saber finished the follow through the wolf was nearly cut in half at the waist.

Her sword caught in the spine of the wolf she had just killed so she had to drop it as the other three wolves attacked at once. She danced away from the swipe of claws, as she twisted and dropped to one knee to hamstring the legs of another beast. Then she did a forward roll and kicked out the knees of the second one. She screamed when the third wolf grabbed her shoulder, burying its claws into her soft flesh. The Slayer tried to block the pain lancing through her as her opponent struggled to gain control of her. The wolf?s mistake was that by grabbing her and then trying to hold her still, he left his neck exposed to her blade. Even with the head gone the wolf?s claws were still buried in her shoulder and they pulled her down to one knee before the dead fingers slid out of the wound with a pop.

She leaned forward sick and dizzy, gasping for air as the fiery torrent of agony raced through her. Then she felt a numbness seeping into her, spreading from her wounds, weakening her far more than simple blood loss ever could. She felt the wet stickiness of blood on her back and dripping down her arms, causing the grip on her Katana to loosen. And now she knew why the leader hadn?t joined the fray. The attacking wolves had dipped their claws into some kind of poison, more than likely a paralytic. The Katana dropped from her nerveless fingers.

A large hand grabbed her hair, pulling her head up, and the bright yellow eyes of the leader stared into hers. "You think we hadn?t heard of you?" he asked, kneeling down and pulling her head back until she was nearly twisted in half. "You think we didn?t know that a Slayer was hunting in the territories?" With each word the leader shook her, the spreading poison weakening her until she had the strength of a rag doll. Blackness was narrowing her vision. Closing it down until all she could see were his two huge yellow eyes.

He let go of her hair and she sprawled helplessly onto the blood-coated grass. Her body was too heavy for her to even turn over on her back. The smell of the coppery blood filled her nose and caused her to gag. The huge werewolf stood up and then used his foot to finally turn her over, away from the awful odor.

"We have been sending out hunting parties to find you for over a month," he told her as that hideous smile returned. "Once you have been trained we will fear no one, imagine ? the power of a Slayer mixed with that of a wolf?"

"No ?I will ?" The Slayer was interrupted by the leader?s laugh. Her eyesight might have been going but her hearing wasn?t and that laugh sent chills down her spine. She had faced off against the vilest of creatures since she became a Slayer and before that she had protected her family's honor by standing guard over her sisters when the Yankee army had marched through Southside. For all that she had gone through, that laugh terrified her. She repeated the vow she had made that dark night during the summer of ?65, if anyone laid a hand on her then she would kill them and then herself.

And since Arthur hadn?t come to aid her, she knew he could only be dead.

"I will have my revenge." She made sure she said the words loudly. If she could only reach one of her daggers in her boot ?

"You will have no choice, "the monster towering over her gloated, "as pack leader you must obey ?" The words were cut off when the creature?s head rolled free, and a geyser of red spewed out of his neck. As the leader?s body collapsed the Slayer saw her Watcher standing tall with the red of the rising sun directly behind him.

"Sorry old chap, but one thing I learned a long time ago is that Belle never obeys," Arthur told the body in front him. The Slayer had never been prouder of her Watcher than at that moment. If it had been possible for her clap her hands and cheer she would have ?instead ?

"What ?took you so long?" She choked out. She started to choke and then cough. The coughing causing the fiery pain to return as her injured shoulder and back protested the movement.

"I had to make my dramatic entrance, don?t you see," the Watcher said. He motioned to the sun behind him and then knelt down, starting to turn her over so that he could get a better look at her injuries. His lighthearted words belied the gravity in the tone of his voice. She cried out as he moved the torn shoulder, putting it back in place.

"You could have warned me you old pillock!" She tried to shout at him only her voice was the barest of whispers.

"Yes, well, and ruin my fun?" Her Watcher examined her wounds and came to the same conclusion she had just a few moments ago. "Their claws must have had some kind of poison on them," he mumbled as he went over to their packs. She saw him rummaging around for their medical kit.

Then her Morgan, surprisingly steady throughout the fight and bloodshed, let out a panicked whinny. The sound pulling her out of the stupor she felt herself falling into from the pain and the effects of the poison.

She took a deep breath, ignoring the odiferous smell of blood and spilled guts ?and let her extra sense free ?only to have it slam into a solid wall. There were more of the beasts coming, they were zeroing in on their location either by the smell or other senses, she didn?t know. She just knew that the eleven they had just faced must have been a small scouting party sent ahead of the main force ?a force she could never hope to fight even when she was healthy.

Now? She gathered all her strength to reach her good arm out for her dagger. She would not be taken by those foul sickening beasts. If she could just reach it then she would be able to ?

"What in the bloody Hell are you doing you fool woman!" Arthur shouted at her and then rushed over to pull the dagger out of her grasp. "Has the poison made you go daft?" He knelt again at her side. Frustrated tears sprang up in her eyes and she remembered her premonition from yesterday.

"There are more beasts coming, many more than the ones we just fought." She marshaled all her remaining strength to make sure Arthur understood her. When he started to shake his head no, she made her good hand reach for his, and take it. "You are the one that taught me what my duty is about; it is about saving the innocents. I will not live this day out; the poison is too strong for even me." She ran out of breath.

"Belle, let me bandage your shoulder and back and then we ?" he told her as her hearing picked up the first faint hiss of the beasts moving through the grass. Just like she heard the wooden creak of Yankee cannon wheels before she saw the soldiers marching by torchlight through the fields. Every second Arthur delayed could cost him his life.

"No!" she tried to shout again, but she had already overextended her energy and it came out as a pitiful cry. "My Morgan can outrun them with only you and no saddle,." she told him reasonably. She couldn?t make her fuzzed, cotton-filled mind work, she didn?t understand his hesitation.

The paint let out a scream of fear and reared up trying to break her hobbles.

"I will not leave you!" Arthur cried, and in her confused state she thought she saw tears leaking out of the corners of his green eyes.

"I am already dead, now go. Release the hobbles on the paint before she breaks her legs and then run!" She was amazed that she was still able to talk. Her mind was shutting down, as was her body, she was a just a few minutes away from unconsciousness.

"No, we either live or die together. As Watcher and Slayer," he paused looking at the panicked horse. "As father and daughter," he finished in a strained whisper.

She shook her head; she must have heard him wrong. Then she saw him grab her Katana and run over to the horses, he sliced through the paint's hobbles and in a flash the horse was gone, spilt hoof and all. He grabbed the Morgan?s bridle up from the tack and again the horse surprised her because he stood docile and still as Arthur slipped it on. He cut the Morgan?s hobbles and led him over to her ?she knew the horse couldn?t carry them both far.

"You are the one that always demanded sacrifice, if you escape then you can lead a fully equipped army back. If you die too then everything would have been in vain!" She had to make him see reason. Instead he just gave her the saddest smile and then her life was made of nothing but burning agony as he lifted her up and placed her on the Morgan?s back.

She felt him jump on behind her and pull her unresisting body against his chest and then her world was black.

TBC in Part Seven D