The F in Pike (Book 3.5) (girlxgirl)

A River in Egypt

She's on fire.

I sit on my tombstone and watch as each fist connects with its target with as much power and strength as she can put into it.

She's like an animal trying to brutally injure its prey before it eats it alive so it doesn't get away. Of course, she did that about 5 minutes ago. That vamp she's pounding on has been even deader on its feet for the past 2 minutes and she's still trying to beat him senseless, which happened 7 minutes ago by my count.

She hits him with a right hook for the third time in ten seconds and it sends the guy tumbling over a headstone to the ground in a heap.

I almost feel sorry for the dead guy. But I guess I shouldn't really be surprised. It's been this way almost every night for the past three months... ever since she left.

She goes over the vamp and picks him up, putting him back on his feet only long enough to kick him square in the gut and send him five feet to the ground.

She's been on a one woman rampage ever since she left and it doesn't look like it'll be letting up any time soon. And I get it. Things didn't really end on the best of terms for them. They didn't kiss and hug and cry as they saw each other off. In fact, they didn't even bother to try and see each other off. But ever since then she's been full steam ahead on almost every vamp she comes within 20 feet of. And this town isn't exactly crawling with vamps to begin with. Not like Sunnydale was.

My eyes drift over to the group of about ten girls standing not far from where I'm sitting.

These girls are never gonna be able to learn if they don't get a couple of decent fights in them. They've gotten a few decent punches in them each at the most. But every time any of them has any sort of trouble, if they misstep and get off balance even for a split second, then she's right in there taking charge and taking over until the vamp is a bloody mess.

Eventually, I go back to watching her beat the vamp to a pulp, which she's still busy doing.

I know that those are the rules and we're supposed to help them out if they get into trouble, but she's being a little liberal with the definition of trouble. It's not helping things. These girls are new to the slaying game. Not like Candy or Temika. They left for college or university about the same time as she did. These girls haven't had time to get the kind of experience that they need to be effective slayers. And they never will if she doesn't learn to let up a little.

Finally, Faith knocks the vamp down one more time before pulling out her stake and driving it with a purpose into the poor dead guy's heart. He turns to dust and Faith turns to me and the girls with a fake smile.

Great, finally...

I look over at the girls and do my best to look like this was part of the plan.

"And that, ladies, for the third time tonight, is known as beating your undead opponent until they don't have the motor skills to put up a fight before staking them."

Some of the girls can't hold back from chuckling a little because they think it's funny.

And it is funny. It was kinda intended to be funny for those girls who don't know Faith well enough to understand what's going on, which pretty much includes all the girls since they barely know anything about her. Faith doesn't make a habit out of trusting new people all that easily. It takes a long time to really get to know her, and even then it can be a struggle. But I get why that is, even if the girls don't.

Faith starts walking back towards the group with that same fake smile.

She got in a decent kill tonight though. Maybe tonight she'll be a little more receptive.