Chapter nineteen

 Maria angrily hit the punching bag again and again, the sounds echoing over and over again in the otherwise empty room, trying to get all the aggression out of her, but knowing this wasn’t working well enough.  She had considered going hunting about to see if their might be any young vampires to take her mood out on, but she didn’t want to run into Alison for the time being.  That would just be too awkward for both of them right now, and she didn’t want to do that to her friend, and friends they still were, she felt certain of that. 
 She just couldn’t understand what was wrong with her friend right now.  Why could Alison not see the danger she was placing herself in?  No vampire had ever joined forces with a slayer, it was unheard of, unnatural.  Things like that just didn’t happen, and things weren’t going to change now just because it was the twenty first century.  The two were as opposite as day and night, and those two things could not exist at the same time, in the same place. 
 A knock at the door upstairs caught her attention, and she took of the boxing gloves on her way up from the basement that they had converted to a training room some time ago.  “Coming,” she called out as she toweled off her sweaty hair.
 As she neared the door, she could feel the power radiating from the being beyond it, and she started to back up.  Not fast enough.
 The door exploded inward in a shower of splinters and wooden debris.  Maria ducked her head, covering herself as best she could to avoid the worse of the shrapnel showering down upon her.  She looked back up, the air full of dust, to see the most elegant woman she had ever seen in her life standing on the other side.  She rose her hands up in defense, but the creature was upon her in a second, knocking her back against the wall.  She hit it with enough for to daze her for several seconds.  Enough time for the female vampire to close the distance and seize her by the neck.  She held her tightly by the throat.  “Were is Marius?” she hissed.
 Maria shook her head, fear for Alison’s well being shooting through her body.  She did not know who this new vampire was, she was too old to be the other one who had claimed territory in this region, but she felt it best if she did not find either Marius or Alison.  “I…I don’t know who you’re talking about,” she gasped, struggling with the hand at her throat.
 The woman shook her as if she were a rag doll.  “Where is he?  I know he is here, and I know you are a slayer.  It is your job to know which ancient ones are around you.  Now, tell me where he is.”
 Maria shook her head.  “I…I have no idea who you’re talking about.”
 The woman began to sniff at the air, as a dog would who is searching for something.  “You are protecting something.  Someone else lives here.  Another slayer,” she said with a note of interest in her voice.  She turned and smiled upon Maria with a cruel, blood thirsty grin.
 Maria felt her heart break at the woman’s words, and she finally got to the stake that she had stuffed into the back of her pants, where she always kept them.  She brought the stake forward, and aimed for the beast‘s heart.  The vampire easily caught it, and held her wrist tight, keeping the deadly wood away from her vulnerable heart.  She looked back at Maria, and uttered, “That was not a very smart thing to do.”
 She could feel the age on this creature rolling of it in waves, and she knew it was ancient, ancient beyond time, and she had no chance of beating the beast.  Still, for Alison’s sake she tried.  Kicking out, her foot connected with the vampire’s leg, but it showed no sign of having felt a thing.  Maria’s leg, on the other hand, cried out in pain.   
 The vampire tossed her across the room, where she hit heavily into the wall, knocking down one of the portraits she and Alison had picked out for their home just a few months ago.  It fell with a shattering of glass. 
 The monster advanced on her, a cruel smile upon her crimson lips.  “It has been some time since I have had this sort of fun.  I had almost forgotten what a joy it is to put you slayers in your place.”
 Maria grabbed out for a bit of glass, and slashed across the other’s arm with it.  The vampire cried out in pain and surprise, and pulled back, for only for a moment.  She grabbed hold of Maria again, and sent her flying into another way.  Bone cracked under the impact of the blow, and she could feel the pain exploding through her, body and mind.  There was no escaping the pain as it seemed to sear through her nerves and brain, and she knew this was it.  She was now too wounded to hope to put up any sort of a fight against this maniac beast.
 The beast smiled down at her, picking her up off the floor as if she weighed nothing at all, dangling her at arms length.  She tried to fight the hands that held her, but they were too strong, too unmovable.  Still holding her tight, the dark mistress of the night said, “Well, if you have nothing else to tell me, perhaps this other slayer would.”  With that said, she easily snapped Maria’s neck, and dropped her useless body to the floor.
 Ishira looked about, trying to get a feel for this new age, and the new slayers of the world.  Looking down at the one she had just disposed of, she doubted they would really cause her any trouble at all.  It seemed that they were still nothing more than exterminators of the young, and this little thing that was still out there, would cause her no trouble at all.  Still, it might be a bit of sport to try and take her out, just for fun.

 Marius had left her some time ago, due to the time of day, and Alison had decided it was time to go home and make amends with Maria.  Even if they could not see eye to eye on this, they were still friends, and Alison was not yet ready to lose that.
 She reached the door to see that it had been knocked off its hinges.  Well, not quite knocked off its hinges.  The door was completely and totally gone.  Fear for her mentor flared in her, and she rushed inside, calling her name.  She could feel a power surging through the room, a strong and ancient power that had yet to dissipate.  It flowed over her, drowning her in its age and strength.  It was as if the room had been bombarded with it, and it was now trying to invade her soul.
 She scanned the room, taking in the damage.  The door lay in several, several small pieces about the front room.  Pictures had been knocked off the walls, and the walls themselves now had dents in them, if they were not completely cracked.  Knick knacks littered the floor in broken pools of sharp glass.  She carefully picked her way through the disaster area that had once been her home.
 She found Maria only moments later, laying upon the floor at an impossible angle.  She fell to her side, feeling the power of the thing that had killed her still radiating off of her, as she reached down to cradle her head close to her heart.
 “Marius,” she hissed in anger, knowing that it had to be him, it had to be.  He was the only one who knew of them, and he was the only once with this much power, with enough age, to have done this.  Raising her head to look out into the sunshine of the day that was filtering through the ruined door, she called out, “Marius, you b*****d.  I’ll kill you when I find you.  I‘ll kill you for this.  I‘ll kill you.”