The liquid goes down quick and I drop the glass down on the bar, letting out a deep breath as I do.

"So... Pike..."

Faith's sudden interest in Pike has me wishing for another shot.

She's been asking a lot of questions.

I manage to catch the bartender's attention and point to my shot glass. He gets the message and gives me a one minute gesture.

More questions then I feel comfortable with.

"How long have you been fighting vampires?"

Pike seems somewhat focused on Faith as we sit at the bar together and she doesn't seem to mind.

But I guess it's better than her being all mope-y and emotional.

"Going on fifteen years now, give or take. There were a few years where I had to take some time off because of injuries and... other issues."

Mope-y and emotional leads to angry destruct-o girl, and that's never good.

He pauses for a second and turns his head half towards me then stops to look down at his drink, taking a sip.

"But beyond that, I've been fighting strong. Killed more vampires, demons and other dark forces then I can remember. Even managed to save the world once or twice."

She smiles at him playfully in a way that makes me feel uncomfortable but I'm not sure why.

"Really?"

"Probably not as much as a couple slayers on the Hellmouth, but I manage."

He knows I lived on the Hellmouth?

"You've been checking up on me?"

He turns his attention to me slightly.

"In a way... after a few years, I was living in New Jersey for a while and I started hearing rumours about a slayer on the west coast. I don't know how much of it was true, but I assume that the fact that there are more slayers than you can shake a stick at these days, that the one about you dying is at least partly true."

"Yeah, the Buffster here has a habit of rising from the grave, the way martyrs tend to do."

Isn't that nice of her?

"Gee, thanks Faith."

Pike smiles at me.

"I can see that. You always were big with the heroics. It was one of your best qualities."

The look on his face makes me feel tingly in a way that I don't think I've felt in a long time.

Uh...

"That's me... heroic martyr girl."

He picks up his beer bottle and tilts it towards me in a salute before turning back to Faith.

"But Buffy isn't the only slayer I heard about over the years."

She seems to perk up at the thought.

Faith's a little too interested in what he has to say.

"Is that so?"

"Most definitely, there were a healthy bunch of rumours going around about a dark and sultry slayer gone rogue."

Faith gets slightly uncomfortable at the mention of her past.

Okay, the happy ship is veering off course, time to pull away from the gloomy depressing mood.

"But she's not all dark and deadly anymore. She's a white hat now, big with the helping the helpless and saving the world and all that."

That makes her relax a little more and I feel a bit better.

"I heard that too. Sorta fuzzy on the details, but if I get the gist of it... you're just a sexy and sultry slayer now."

She smiles at him and readjusts herself on the bar stool she's sitting on.

"Sexy and sultry eh? I can live with that."

This time I'm the one who shifts my position.

"Right... because there could never be any other slayer that's sexy and sultry."

Pike decides to backpedal suddenly.

"I wasn't trying to... I mean, you know that I was..."

Faith jumps in at this point.

"They're just rumours B. And besides, they are kind of true. I mean, on a scale of you to me?"

She wiggles and smirks at the same time.

"Is there really any contest?"

My natural instinct is to argue the point but Faith does need the ego boost.

"If you think so, F..."

There are a few moments of uncomfortable silence between us despite the music playing and the crowds of people around the club in different pockets. But it isn't long before Faith breaks it.

"So... Pike, what brings you in search of us hot and sexy slayer-selves?"

He sits back on the bar stool more comfortably while seeming like he's uncomfortable.

"Straight to the shop-talk with things then..."

Pike takes a moment to breathe.

"Well, actually... I was looking for you Buff."

I sit back, kind of surprised.

"Me? Really?"

He turns the glass on the table nervously.

"Yeah..."

"And you just, decided to look me up after 15 years?"

"You probably could've found her before that, couldn't you? Rumours and all... she spent 7 years in the same demon infested town."

Pike takes a breath.

"Well from everything I heard... you could handle yourself..."

I don't really respond.

He does have a point.

"But I heard about Sunnydale, and that you were on this whole mission to train the sudden overpopulation of new slayers that have cropped up since then and I thought I should look you up."

"All of the sudden? Without any reason?"

"I didn't say that."

Oh good, I love it when this happens.

"There's something coming. Something big and bad and mean..."

Sure it is...

"It couldn't be cute and fuzzy?"

Faith comes in at this point.

"How big are we talking? Apocalypse big?"

He half shrugs.

"I'm not sure. I've been tracking it since a little town just outside of Maine. There has been a rash of murders across the east coast and heading this way."

"This way?"

Murders? What kinds of murders?

"I assume there's something different about the murders? Something that makes you think that it's monster worthy?"

Pike doesn't elaborate right away, taking a breath.

"Their heads were taken clean off. And we're not talking about beheaded by a blade or some freaky surgery. The coroners I spoke to said that the only way they could think that these people died was that they had their heads torn off by hand... while they were still alive."

Damn...

Faith and I look at each other for a moment.

"So when you said big and bad..."

"You weren't kidding."

Isn't that nice? Something big and bad is heading this way.

"What else do you know? Was there anything else on the victims? Marks? Symbols carved into their body or close to it?"

"I did some investigating, tried to get as much info as I can about them. It's kind of why I'm here."

Why he's...

"It is?"

"All I had to do was look at two or three of the police reports and the obvious just jumped right out at me."

This time it's Faith that asks the question.

"Which is?"

"The names on the files of the victims, the one thing they have in common are the last names... Summers..."

Oh... good...