Gods And Monsters

Chapter Eighty-seven:

His facial features transforming, Spike allowed his stronger, instinctive vampire form to take over and attacked the arrogant preacher. Caleb shoved him down with ease. Spike tried to stand up, but Caleb head-butted him and threw him into a huge wine tank. His impact caused the side to crack, and red wine came pouring out of the fissure, washing him across the floor.

"Let's go!" Kennedy shouted, leading the other Potentials into battle.

The Bringers returned, engaging with the Potentials and blocking Kennedy's trajectory towards Caleb. Once the Bringer was out of the way, she stormed towards Caleb, but he knocked her into a stack of barrels with a single blow.

"Kennedy!" Rona cried out, rushing in her direction.

Caleb cut her off, and she swung her spiked baseball bat at him, but he caught it.

His eyes locked onto hers. "Miss, I do believe you have your own problems you should be worrying about."

Without hesitation, he snapped her arm effortlessly and she reeled back in agony. Chuckling, he bent to retrieve an abandoned knife from the floor and tossed it over to a Bringer. The Bringer swung it back, ready to plunge it into Rona. Fortunately, an arrow chose that precise moment to pierce the Bringer's wielding arm and send it rearing backward.

Everyone turned around in unison, searching for the source of the arrow. Their collective gazes located Xander in the doorway, armed with a crossbow. He was flanked on either side by Faith and Hel.

"Oh, good. There's more of you." Commented Caleb gleefully.

Faith charged Caleb, armed with a knife in each hand.

Her broadsword materialising with a golden shimmer, Hel gripped the hilt tightly and entered the chaotic fight before her.

The Bringer abandoned Rona to confront Xander, and Xander fought him off, spotting an unconscious Buffy. "Buffy!" He ran to her side, battling Bringers along the way.

Caleb sized Faith up, giving her form a once-over as his devious eyes raked up and down. "Well, you're the other one, aren't you? Your Cain to her Abel." She threw her knife at him, but he blocked her, unfazed. "No offence meant to Cain, of course."

With her other knife, she swung at him. He grabbed ahold of her arm, twisted it, and crossed it with her other arm in a position that rendered her immobile. Her attacks had proven to be ineffective against his fast reflexes and inhuman strength. He squeezed her hands until she dropped both knives.

Grunting, she kneed him hard in the crotch. Just for a split second, his grip loosened, and she broke free. She backhanded him across the face, gritting her teeth. "Never was much for the good book."

Caleb recaptured her arm and twisted it painfully behind her back a second time, causing her to double over. She fell to her knees as he circled around to stand in front of her, pulling on her contorted arm.

"Oh, it has its moments." He remarked. "Paul had some good stuff, for instance. But overall I find it a tad complicated." He delivered a harsh slap across her cheek. "I like to keep things simple." He kicked her with enough force to send her flying across the room, into a stack of wine barrels. "Good folk, bad folk..." A Potential with long black hair swung at him, but he caught her sword and clutched her face in his free hand. "Clean folk, dirty folk..." He snapped her neck without a second thought and dropped her carelessly to the floor.

"No!" Molly exclaimed, having witnessed him slaughter the girl.

"Yes." Caleb countered, stalking menacingly towards her.

Frozen with fear, Molly could do nothing but back away slowly. She raised her arm to stab him, but he ensnared her wrist in one hand and her neck in the other.

He squeezed her throat, lifting her until her feet left the floor. "What can I say? I work in mysterious ways." He plunged a knife into her gut, then discarded her limp body. "Also some fairly straightforward ones."

Decapitating a Bringer with her broadsword, Hel spun around and saw the young girl's corpse at his feet. Enraged by the senseless spilling of innocent blood, she raised her sword and sprinted at him. The fight was fairly even, as she avoided his punches and he deflected her blade with his own. Becoming fed up, she finally lifted a foot and knocked him across the room with a strong kick square in his chest.

Fuelled by pure instinct and adrenaline, Hel nearly swung her sword at Spike when his hand closed around her arm, startling her. His clothes were soaking wet, dripping red wine onto the floor, and his hair was damp.

"We're all leaving." He informed her, his eyes locked onto hers.

Although reluctant to leave the sadistic preacher alive, she allowed herself to be pulled away by Spike. Ahead of them, a weakened Kennedy was escorting Rona out of the building.

Close behind them, Xander waved girls on. "Let's go! Come on!"

Catching up to them, Caleb grabbed onto Xander's shoulder and spun him around. "You're the one who sees everything, aren't you?" Drawing his hand back in front of Xander's face, Caleb eyed him  thoughtfully. "Well, let's see what we can't do about that." Suddenly, he plunged his thumb into Xander's left eye.

Xander screamed, alerting the others.

Spike bolted from Hel's side, heading straight for Caleb and shoving him away from Xander.

Xander stumbled back, blood oozing from his gouged eye socket. He fell to his knees, facing the wine barrels.

Buffy hastened to him. "Xander! Come on!"

Buffy and Spike each took an arm and lifted Xander to his feet, following the others as they carried him out. Hel was waiting for them just outside the door, and fell into step beside Spike as they headed home.