Love Kills Slowly

To her surprise, the Slayer eventually fell asleep. She awoke the next morning instantly alert and sat up, sighing when she saw Daryl leaning against the wall. His dark hair was spiked and he had a very similar appearance of Adam Lambert. He had a great body too, she could tell from the way his clothes fit around his muscles.

“Good morning, Rose,” Daryl said, his eccentricity back and in full force. He pushed himself off the wall and appeared at her bedside in an instant. “Get up! Get up! Time for training!”

Rose froze. “Training?”

“Well... not really training. But you’ll see when you get there! Come, come. We don’t have all day.”

Daryl pulled her to her feet, ripped the gown off her body and threw some clothes at her. She quickly pulled on the garments, jeans and a white tee shirt. Daryl then grabbed her hand, placed her on his back before she could protest and ran.

Rose could barely see, everything was a blur and tears filled her eyes from the wind. Giving up, she buried her face into Daryl’s neck, getting a whiff of his delicious cologne. Finally they stopped and Rose peeled herself off of Daryl, staggering on her feet. The vampire held her back for balance and Rose looked around.

They were in a giant gym full of punching bags, dummies and obstacle courses. Rose’s brows furrowed.

“What is all this?”

Daryl grinned at her. “Well, Vandala and I were impressed with what you did yesterday, so we decided to have you put on a show. Or in other words show off.”

Rose cocked a brow. “Do I have any say in this?”

“Of course not!” Daryl said gleefully and caught her hand again, pulling her further into the gym. Rose groaned.

The Queen appeared from behind the bleachers, wearing jeans and a nice sweater. Her hair had been yanked back into a neat pony tail and her make up was much less... dark. It was simple and pretty. She looked like a very young, very gorgeous soccer mom.

“Hello, Rose,” her voice was the same mesmerizing tone. The Slayer wondered why she only thought Vandala’s was so beautiful. “I hope you’re ready.”

“No, I’m just glad I had a choice in this.”

Vandala smiled. “You will like it more once you start. I know you, Rose. This is what you live for.”

Rose didn’t respond.

The Queen turned to Daryl. She didn’t say a word, but Daryl nodded as if she had. Vandala turned and walked away, her sneakers not even making a sound. Daryl looked at Rose.
“Don’t be shy, dear. This is our form of the Olympics,” he winked and caught up with Vandala, sitting with her in the bleachers.

Rose sighed and pushed some hair out of her face, looking at the first task in front of her. Everything else had magically disappeared behind walls, almost like a maze. The Slayer’s eyes narrowed at the table of weapons to her left. She reached out and picked up the two stakes, leaving behind the guns and knives. Those were powerful, but useless.

Walking forward, Rose stopped in confusion when she saw the gym floor become grass, the walls were trees and the sky was dark with no stars. She could barely see, but she managed. How this was happening, she had no idea, but she went with it.

A rustling.

She stopped, looking all around her. The hairs on the back of her neck rose and that’s how she knew the thing was behind her. She waited until it grabbed her shoulders. She took a hold of it’s arms and flung it forward. It hit the ground hard and she jumped onto it, stabbing it with a stake. The vampire burst into dust.

Getting to her feet, Rose brushed more hair out of her face and kept walking. For several long minutes, nothing happened. She passed several benches and realized she was in a city park. Of course there would be vampires at a park. Teenagers came out here to smoke and do drugs all the time.

Suddenly, six vampires leaped out from the bushes, snarling and hissing, teeth bared and claws out. The Slayer flung one stake and it pierced one of their chests, causing the monster to crumble into dust. She smirked and ran at the group, jumping over them just in time. Another stake thrown. Another vampire down.

Rose slid between the legs of one, grabbing a stake in the process, rolled to her feet and punched one in the face. It reared back, she kicked its shins, stabbed its throat.

The three remaining were as furious as ever. They roared and lunged all at once. She was able to dodge one, but was struck to the ground by the middle. It growled and slobbered all over her. She punched it, shoving it off of her before straddling it. As she came forward with the stake it grabbed her wrist and twisted.

She cried out, but brought her other elbow down on his face. He let go of arm long enough for her to stab him. The other two went down easily.

The park disappeared, the gym’s lights blinding her. She blinked several times until she could see again. She looked up in the bleachers. Daryl was pleased and furiously clapping. Vandala... well, her happiness was hidden behind a mask of lust and affection. The two emotions caused Rose to have a seizure of shivers and turn away, trying to focus on what was next.

It was an obstacle course. The Slayer smirked. Her second specialty. Rose went through the obstacle with hardly any difficulty. If she’d been anything, but a slayer she would never have lived passed the first obstacle. At the end was a vampire, it was buff with muscle and acted more like an animal than anything else. Seeing it before she got there, the Slayer used the obstacle as an advantage and swung into battle quite literally. She landed on the thing’s back and stabbed it in the chest with a stake. The creature howled and threw her across the arena. Rose groaned, her lower back hot from skidding across the floor.

“Okay, that hurt, bitch.” She got to her feet and stalked to the vampire, kicking it hard in the shin, kneeing it in the gut then plunging another stake into the side of it’s head. It went down, burst into dust and the games were over.

The obstacle course, the maze all disappeared. The bleachers were folded back into place without being touched and Daryl and Vandala popped up by her side. Daryl squealed and wrapped her up in a gigantic hug.

“Oh, my God, Rose, you were amazing! Very impressive, my darling.”

Rose smiled. “Thanks, Daryl.”

“You were quite the sight,” Vandala spoke in a smooth voice, her face stony, but her eyes said more. She was impressed, the Slayer could see it clearly in her gaze.

“Thank you.”

The Queen’s lips twitched. “I want to show you something.”

Rose’s brows furrowed slightly, but she followed the Queen anyway. Vandala led her down two long halls and multiple turns, up a flight of stairs and into a room blocked off by large, arched doors. Rose’s eyes went big and she gasped in amazement. Inside the room were large, glass cases with every type of sword and stake you could find. Some were extremely old, others fairly new.

“How do you have all of these?”

“I’ve lived a millenia, Rose. Vampires were only just beginning to be discovered after I’d become queen. There were many attempts to kill me and I’ve kept every weapon that’s come my way. The only one I’m missing is the 1930’s wooden stake made of Oak. People were far more worried about the war at the time.”

“Who cares? You have a collection of weapons, Vandala! That’s amazing... and kind of creepy if they were meant to kill you.”

Vandala laughed, “Yes, a little bit.”

Rose smiled, looking at her. Vandala almost seemed to blush and she turned away, placing her hand on one of the glass cases.

“My favorite is this one here.” Rose looked. It was made of silver and had intricate designs carved into it. The stake was beautiful in an odd sense. “This one had been stabbed into my chest, barley missing my heart. I had been old enough to survive the wound and I suppose that was a good thing. But Angela did not survive the attack that day and Scarlet hated me for it. She blames me for her death, even though I had thrown myself in front of the stake to save her.” Vandala sighed. “I guess living with the same person for a few hundred years makes you pissy all the time.” The Queen smiled and Rose laughed
.
“You know, Vandala... you’re not that bad.”

Vandala looked up at Rose’s words, her eyes shining. “Do you mean that, Slayer?”

“Yeah, I do.”

The Queen leaned forward, hesitated, then cupped Rose’s cheek and kissed her passionately. Rose sighed in content, kissing her back. Several long minutes passed and Rose had to pull away to catch up on her breathing. The Queen just simply moved on to her neck, pressing gentle kisses to the skin. Rose’s eyes closed and her hand moved up to fist some of Vandala’s hair. She pulled and the Queen attacked her throat even harder. She pulled again, even harder. It became a vicious cycle until... the door opened.

Daryl stood there white faced when he realized he’d walked in on them. “U-um... should I... go?”

“Yes.”

“No,” Rose cut in, pulling away from Vandala’s grip. “What do you need?”

“Um... Never mind. It wasn’t important"
.
“Obviously, it was,” Vandala snapped.

Daryl swallowed. “There are two slayers here... they’re looking for Rose.”

Rose’s eyes widened. “What do they look like?”

“One is female, she has curly brown hair. The other is male, with blond hair. Really pretty blue eyes,” he added.

“JOHN!” Rose cried and ran past the two, down the stairs, the halls and down the other staircase, jumping over the last four and into John’s arms. “Oh, my God!”

“Rose!” He held her tight. Finally he let her go, smoothing back some of her hair.

“You have to go, John. Take Lizz and get out of here.”

The other slayer looked at her like she was crazy. “Rose... you have to come with us. It’s why we’re here.”

At that moment, Daryl and Vandala appeared. Rose sighed, stepping away from John. Daryl was staring at him with big, admiring eyes, but Vandala was glaring.

John’s eyes widened. “This - this is the queen.”

“Yes,” Vandala said, her eyes still narrowed.

“B-but Rose was supposed to kill you.”

“Yes,” she repeated.

“Why aren’t either of you dead?”

“She’s been my... prisoner.” Vandala bent her head, glanced at the floor, then met Rose’s gaze. “But she may leave now.”

Rosalyn Black’s eyes widened into saucers and her blood boiled with excitement. She was released, she was free, she could leave. No vampires would be sent after her this time, nothing could stop her... except herself. She didn’t want to leave, not now. She’d just discovered that the Queen wasn’t an awful person, that vampires weren’t monsters and now she had to go. She had to leave them behind.

“Can I ever visit?”

Vandala’s eyes filled with tears. “It doesn’t work that way, Rose.”

Rose looked at John and Lizz. They were both confused out of their minds, but Rose didn’t blame them. She sighed, walked up to Daryl and gave him a huge hug. Daryl squeezed back tightly, giving her hair a tug.

“I like it short,” he said and gave her a wink.

She smiled, fighting against the want to cry. “We can go now,” she said, her voice cracking.
And so they did.